Tag Archives: National Hockey League

Buying A Ticket on the Kane Train

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment
Evander Kane scores one of his eight goals 272x300 Buying A Ticket on the Kane Train

Evander Kane Scores Again

Even Winnipeg Jets head coach Claude Noel admitted that Evander Kane’s 2011-12 National Hockey League season didn’t start very well.

“Look at the way he’s playing now as opposed to the way he played at the beginning for the year,” said Noel shortly after Kane scored a pair of goals in Saturday night’s 4-2 Jets’ win over New Jersey. “He’s really playing well and he’s playing well with his linemates (Little and Wellwood). This is a guy who is improving all the time and it’s nice to see. He’s doing a lot of things well right now.”

Evander Kane – and yes, he was named after former World Heavyweight boxing champ Evander Holyfield – is turning into one of the most feared scorers in the NHL.

The 6-foot-2, 200-pound, 20-year-old is in the midst of a five-game points streak (seven points in those five games) and has 12 points in his last nine games.

With two goals on Saturday night, Kane scored his 13th and 14th of the year. He’s now sixth in goal scoring in the NHL, tied with Pittsburgh’s James Neal, one behind Jonathan Toews and Claude Giroux and just two back of league-leaders Phil Kessel, Steven Stamkos and Milan Michalek. Suddenly, a prospect just out of his teens is now among the game’s greatest scorers.

But it’s not like it wasn’t expected. When the new owners of the Atlanta Thrashers sat down to decide who they would keep and who they would let go, Kane was at the top of the keep list. He was going into the final year of his rookie contract and would make $900,000 this season. But next year, he’d be looking for a big number and the Jets brass has already swallowed and decided to do whatever they can to keep him. Good thing, too. He’s not only playing tremendous hockey, he’s become a huge fan-favorite.

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Kane Scores Against the Flyers

However, two months ago, Kane wasn’t so certain he wanted to be in Winnipeg. There were conversations with his close friends that he was going to ask for a trade. He was unhappy with his ice time – he averaged only 11 minutes a game through the first six of the season and he was scoreless. He didn’t like Noel and wasn’t afraid to tell people about it. He didn’t score a goal until the seventh game of the season (that means he actually has 14 goals in the last 18 games) and really didn’t start to play much until the ninth game of the year.

But his dad, an old amateur boxer and hockey player at St. Francis Xavier University and his mom, a former basketball and volleyball player, had always told to him to hang in there, work hard and good things will come.

And it doesn’t hurt that he comes from a family of pro athletes, a list that includes his cousin Dwayne Provo, who played in both the CFL and NFL, and another cousin, Kirk Johnson, who competed for Canada in boxing at the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona. If Evander doesn’t understand something, he has plenty of people around him who can fill him in.

Still, even though he was an outstanding junior who had 48 goals and 96 points in 61 games with his hometown Vancouver Giants in 2008-09 and was also a member of Canada’s national world junior championship team in 2009, the can’t-miss Kane missed early in his NHL career.

In his rookie year in Atlanta in 2009-10, Kane had 14 goals in 66 games. In his sophomore year last season with the Thrashers, Kane had 19 goals in 73 games. This year, he has 14 goals in 25 games and is on pace to score 44 this season. If he can possibly keep up this pace, he could emerge as one of the greatest scorers in the game today.

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Kane Scores Against Florida

“He’s playing really well especially when he comes down the wing and drives to the net,” Noel said of Kane “He’s using his speed and size and he’s shooting the puck. He’s not doing anything a lot different. He’s just getting a lot of opportunities. He’s gotta shoot the puck. And with his shot, why wouldn’t he?”

In training camp, Kane knew what this season meant. Not just because he was playing in a new hockey-mad city, but because if he could finally have that big year, the year the scouts believed he could produce, he could turn it into a large, long-term paycheque.

“This is my third year in the league and, obviously, it’s a big year for me,” Kane said during camp. “I know I have to have to play well. I have to come in here and make a statement.”

The first statement he made was calling and asking Winnipeg Jets great, Bobby Hull, if he could wear Hull’s No. 9. The fans loved him for that.

“It’s almost like asking a father for his daughter’s hand in marriage,” Kane told the Vancouver Province. “I’ve read somewhere on Twitter that he had done an interview and said that he wanted me to wear it proudly. I don’t know if that’s true or not. Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to speak to him soon. If he doesn’t have an issue with me wearing it, I’ll do my best on and off (the ice) to live up to wearing that number. If I have to change, I’ll change.”

Interestingly, he would never have had to change anyway because Jets 2.0 does not own the history of Jets 1.0. This incarnation of the Jets owns Atlanta’s history. Phoenix owns the history of the last incarnation of the Jets. Confusing perhaps, but true.

As well, Kane isn’t wearing No. 9 because of Hull. He’s wearing it because of the man who owns part of his junior team, Gordie Howe. Confusing perhaps, but true.

Regardless, he’s becoming the great offensive player every one knew he could be and both Hull and Howe would be proud.

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The NHL at the Quarter Pole

Posted on November 26, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment
sidney crosby 238x300 The NHL at the Quarter Pole

The Kid is Back

Sidney Crosby is back, Alexander Ovechkin is struggling, the Calgary Flames are fighting amongst themselves, Ken Hitchcock is now coaching in St. Louis while everyone is wondering how long Scott Arniel will last in Columbus and Phil Kessel is the leading scorer in the National Hockey League.

We’re one quarter of the way through the 2011-12 NHL season and these are among the key stories as the league speeds head-on into the holiday season.

Things are crazy this season. The Winnipeg Jets are back but they’re still playing like the old Atlanta Thrashers. The Minnesota Wild, with 29 points, is the No. 1 team in the league. And after 20-plus games for most teams, there are two teams in the Top 8 in the East that didn’t make the playoffs last year and three in the West.

It’s the NHL at the quarter-pole. Let’s look at the 10 biggest stories:

1. Sidney Crosby is Back: The Kid returned on Monday, Nov. 20 and wowed national audiences on both sides of the border with two goals and two assists in his return. After missing almost a year with post-concussion syndrome, his return to the game was just as important to the NHL as it was Sidney himself. The fact that he went scoreless in his second game against St. Louis went without notice. Crosby is back and that’s good for hockey.

Phil+Kessel+Buffalo+Sabres+v+Toronto+Maple+bAvHC8tETdsl 242x300 The NHL at the Quarter Pole

Phil Kessel

2. Phil Kessel is the NHL’s Leading Scorer: He was drafted fifth overall in 2005 and since that day, the NHL has been waiting for Kessel to reach a level of play that no one with a walnut for a brain ever truly believed he could reach. Drafted by Boston, he scored 36 goals in 2008-09 but the Bruins expected more. Dealt to Toronto, he’s had a 30-goal season in 2009-10 and a 32-goal season last year and he’s a damned good player. Trouble is, Toronto fans – like Boston fans – have expected more. This year, he has 16 goals and 14 assists in the first 22 games and leads the NHL in goals and points. Maybe, just maybe, this will be the year Kessel gets the respect he deserves.

3. Ken Hitchcock Hired to Coach the Blues, Not Jackets: Everyone – and that means absolutely everyone – thought Hitchcock would return to the NHL this year as head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets. After all, the Blue Jackets were still paying him, Scott Arniel was said to be on the verge of a sacking and the Blue Jackets had allegedly spoken to Hitchcock. Then, out of the blue (pun intended), Payne Davis was fired in St. Louis and Hitchcock was behind the bench of the Blues. He started out 4-0-1, the best start of any coach in Blues franchise history and suddenly the Blues found themselves fifth overall in the West. Quite a move.

Alex+Ovechkin+Washington+Capitals+v+Toronto+G1Edq3jHTLtl 250x300 The NHL at the Quarter Pole

Alex Ovechkin

4. Alex Ovechkin is Not the Same: Sure, it’s early yet, but something seems to be terribly wrong with Alex the Great. He has seven goals and nine assists in the Capitals first 20 games and is 58th in scoring. He is on pace for a 65-point season. In 2007-08, he had 65 goals. After he had 50 goals and 59 assists in just 72 games in 2009-10, he hasn’t been the same. He had only 32 goals and 53 points last year and this year, while he plays exciting hockey in spurts, he is not consistently great – or exciting. Insiders say Caps coach Bruce Boudreau has sucked the life out of Ovechkin with his defense-first philosophy and perhaps that’s true. If it is, it’s time for a change. Man, Ovie would look really good in L.A., but then again, the Kings probably couldn’t handle the cap hit.

5. The Leafs Look Like a Playoff Team: Even with goalie-of-the-present-and-future James Reimer out with a concussion, the Leafs have played steady hockey and through 22 games, they are 12-8-2, fifth in the East. They have the leading scorer in the NHL in Phil Kessel and they often appear to be a team that could stay in the hunt all season long. In fairness, the next 20 games will probably show us whether or not the Leafs are for real.

Andrew Ladd 1 235x300 The NHL at the Quarter Pole

Andrew Ladd

6. Winnipeg’s Return to the NHL: Wow! The building is sold out, the team is 8-9-4 through their first 21 games and fans are madly in love with this group of orphans who were once known as the Atlanta Thrashers. It’s the fans, however, that have sent a message to the NHL. That message is clear, too. Get teams out of Florida, Phoenix, Nashville, Dallas, Columbus and all those minor-league southern markets and send the game back to Canada and the northern United States. This is where players are revered and the game is loved. The NHL would be better off with three teams in Toronto, two in Vancouver and one each in Halifax, Quebec City and Saskatchewan than it is with teams in the U.S. Sun Belt.

7. The Minnesota Wild Is No. 1: Last year, the Wild went 39-35-8 and finished 12th in the West. Today, the Wild are 13-5-3 during the first 21 games and No. 1 overall in the NHL. Yes, that’s the whole NHL. Yeah, really. The Wild acquired Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi from San Jose in the off-season and have made themselves one of the better clubs in the NHL. It certainly doesn’t hurt to have Nicklas Backstrom and Josh Harding as your goaltenders and the heart and soul of Cal Clutterbuck, Guillaume Latendresse, Matt Cullen, Mikko Koivu and Kyle Brodziak, but the acquisition of Heatley and Setoguchi have made the Wild a legitimate playoff contender. The key now, is to avoid last season’s late collapse.

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Marty St. Louis

8. Tampa/Washington Fighting with Coaches: There is a real sense out there that the Washington Capitals are having trouble relating to the defense-first philosophy of head coach Bruce Boudreau and that the Tampa Bay Lightning have simply stopped listening at all to Guy Boucher. The Caps won the East last year and are now sixth. The Lightning was fifth in the East last year and is now 12th. Whatever the reason, something is definitely wrong with both teams.

9. Phoenix is Still an Ownership Wasteland: See: “Winnipeg’s Return to the NHL.”

10: Brendan Shanahan Hands Out Discipline (Or Not): If you can figure out the reasons for why players receive or don’t receive secondary discipline from Shanahan’s office, you’re smarter than, well, just about everybody. Why some players get three-game suspensions and others avoid any secondary discipline at all seems like a pure guessing game. At least, from afar. It’s amazing that while few people understood Colin Campbell’s disciplinary policy, even fewer seem to understand Shanahan’s. Maybe the players get it.

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The NHL Does Everything it Can to Avoid Winnipeg.

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

There are a lot of things I don’t understand, but this one takes the chocolate mousse. Have you noticed that the National Hockey League has brought Chicago White Sox and Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf back into the negotiations to purchase and then save the Phoenix Coyotes?

The Globe & Mail reported this morning that Reinsdorf is likely back in the picture even though he’s already blown off the NHL once before. Not even with a truckload of public subsidies would Reinsdorf want any part of a hockey franchise that’s losing $30 million to $40 million a season. One thing about rich people. They like being rich and when business “opportunities” arise that will probably make them less rich, they tend to head for the hills.

If this news item is true — and in these types of negotiations there is always reason to believe that it’s not — it just goes to show the depths to which the NHL will go in order to save a dead dog like the Coyotes. And, in the process, avoid having to go hat in hand to the Thomson/Chipman group in Winnipeg and move a team from a community of 3.5 million people to one with 750,000 people.

The deal in Phoenix is a mess. If it’s not dead, it’s on life support. Nobody really wants to own a hockey team in the desert. I mean, really? The freakin’ desert?This franchise has been a money-losing fiasco from the day it arrived and the more money it loses, the dumber it makes commissioner Gary Bettman look.

Meanwhile, Winnipeg has a passable building, great fans, real winter, a hockey history and a couple of owners who would do a great job. So why hasn’t the league just cratered the deal in Phoenix and returned to Winnipeg?

The answer is obvious. If you’ve reached the point where you have to bring back a guy who already told you the deal is stupid, you are now at the point where you are doing everything humanly possible to keep this team out of Winnipeg. And while Bettman is the commissioner, he works for the owners. The owners tell him when he can go to the toilet  and right now they are telling him to do whatever he can to keep that team in Phoenix.

Nothing about the Phoenix situation makes any sense. A couple of years ago, before the NHL took over the team and, rather surprisingly, turned it into a good team, club president Doug Moss said to me, “If we ever put a winner on the ice, fans here will respond.”

There is now a winner on the ice and the fans are still AWOL. Sadly, a very good team that is 8-1-1 in its last 10 and could very well go two or three rounds in the post-season, just drew an announced crowd of 12,541 to a big shootout win over Dallas. It doesn’t work, it’s never worked, it won’t work and yet the NHL simply will NOT stop trying to find a sucker to buy this dog and keep it in the desert.

Call me crazy, but the league should have stuck to its original Dec. 31, deadline and simply asked David Thomson (thank you Winnipeg Jets) to make an offer. This drawn-out negotiation and the ensuing fight with the crazy Arizona Republicans has cost the NHL millions in bad money and bad PR.

So why then, is the league so convinced that it has to find an owner in Phoenix and seemingly avoid Winnipeg at any cost?

I know the answer, but I’ll leave it to you to discuss amongst yourselves.

 

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Arniel Hired to Coach Blue Jackets

Posted on June 7, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

If any coach in the American Hockey League deserved a head job in the NHL, it’s Manitoba Moose boss Scott Arniel. Like Randy Carlyle and Alain Vigneault before him, Arniel has made the Moose one of the best teams in the AHL — even in those seasons when the Moose weren’t really that good (like 2009-2010 for instance).

And that’s why it was wonderful news when we heard this afternoon that Arniel had accepted an offer to become head coach of the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets. The news conference in Columbus will be held at 11 a.m. CDT on Tuesday.

Arniel, who is 47, has been head coach of the Moose since the 2006-07 season. His record in Winnipeg has been sensational. He has never won fewer than 40 games, made the playoffs every year and took the Moose to the AHL final in 2009. His record in Winnipeg is 181-106-33.

He was also an excellent player. In 11 NHL seasons with the Winnipeg Jets, Buffalo Sabres, and Boston Bruins, he had 149 goals and 338 points.

Scott Arniel has all the tools to be a successful NHL coach. And if you consider the success Carlyle and Vigneault have had since leaving Winnipeg, it’s pretty obvious that a job as head coach of the Moose is just about the best training an NHL head coach could ever have.

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Glendale (Arizona) City Council Bends Over. Reinsdorf in, Ice Edge Out.

Posted on April 14, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

On the eve of the opening of the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs, the city council of Glendale, Ariz., “unanimously” approved a lease proposal for jobing.com Arena from Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox, that gives Reinsdorf the arena rent free with benefits.

It’s something Winnipeg should have thought about 20 years ago, but that’s a whole ‘nother argument.

The council’s decision means that Reinsdorf, a reluctant buyer for the team, gets to negotiate the details of a new lease with the city. It also means that Ice Edge Holdings, those crazy dreamers from the East, have been dumped by the NHL.

In a story that appeared in the Arizona Republic, it was stated that, “Reinsdorf is on track to owning the team, pending the approval of the NHL.” Approval of the NHL? Who writes this shit? He was brought on board by the NHL. Commissioner Gary Bettman must have pictures of him with a goat. Six months ago, he wanted no part of this perennial money-loser. The deal he was given would be given only to a person who had no desire to purchase the team and the league was begging him to take over.

According to my sources in Phoenix, the city will pay off the $180 million in debt on the arena that essentially buried the former owner Jerry Moyes. This is a team that has never turned a profit and, depending how far they go in the playoffs this spring, could lose between $20 million and $50 million on this season’s efforts, as well.

The deal also creates an “independent taxing authority” around the arena. Great way to raise money and one that would work in Canada because it essentially taxes the users, not everyone universally.

Reinsdorf has been given everything that Jerry Moyes was not. This is the sweetheart of sweetheart deals. Even if the guy wants no part of this money-losing dog, he has to like what Glendale City Council gave him on Tuesday.

OK, back to square one. Is David Thomson still interested in buying the dog-ass Atlanta Thrashers?

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Finally, A Mainstream Media Outlet Picks Up What Winnipeggers Have Known for Months.

Posted on March 29, 2010 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

We’ve been talking about it for months, the people of Winnipeg have been talking about it for months and the mainstream media has been saying, “Absolutely Untrue.”

Well, what started as a rumour in February has now been validated by the mainstream media. Not in Winnipeg, of course, but in Phoenix.

Could the Jets be coming back? Even Scott Brown, the director of communications for True North Sports and Entertainment, won’t deny it in the following story from Mike Sunnucks of the highly-regarded Phoenix Business Journal…

Monday, March 29, 2010, 10:11am MST

NHL talking to billionaire David Thomson about Phoenix Coyotes sale

Phoenix Business Journal – by Mike Sunnucks

The National Hockey League is working on a backup plan with Toronto billionaire David Thomson and Winnepeg-based True North Sports and Entertainment that could send the Phoenix Coyotes back to Canada if a deal with Ice Edge Holdings or Jerry Reinsdorf to keep the team in Arizona falls through.

Two sources with knowledge of the Coyotes finances and ownership said a deal between Thomson and the NHL has been completed in principle and could have the Coyotes back in Winnipeg next season if necessary. Thomson, also considered a possible buyer of the Atlanta Thrashers, is a partner in True North and chairman of Thomson Reuters. True North owns the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League and MTS Centre in Winnipeg, which seats 15,100.

The sources said, however, the NHL still wants to work out a deal to keep the Coyotes in the Phoenix market. The league bought the Coyotes, still in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, for $140 million in October fending off a $242 million bid by Research in Motion CEO Jim Balsillie, who wanted to move the team to Hamilton, Ontario.

League officials said during bankruptcy proceedings last year that if a deal could not be finalized by June 2010 it would be open to a sale that would involve a move from the team’s home in Glendale.

Scott Brown, communications director for True North Sports and the Manitoba Moose (who play in Winnipeg), declined comment.

“Due to the possible impact on both the Coyotes and our own AHL product here in Manitoba, we’ve actually been hesitant to engage in any discussion publicly about the situation in Phoenix as far back as last summer when rumors began to surface of the team’s possible departure. It is our understanding the NHL is working very hard to keep the team where it is in Phoenix,” Brown said.

Glendale city spokeswoman Julie Frisoni also declined comment as did NHL spokesman Kerry McGovern.

The NHL and Glendale are still working with Ice Edge Holdings to keep the team in Arizona with some games to be played in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, but there have been reports of financing challenges.

Ice Edge COO Daryl Jones said he optimistic about financing the Coyotes sale. “Ice Edge feels very comfortable with their financing. Our banks are very interested in this deal,” Jones said. He told a Toronto radio station recently, however, he wanted Glendale to move faster in getting a lease deal.

Glendale officials also have been talking to Chicago Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf and his business partner John Kaites, who previously made a bid for the Coyotes.

The Coyotes have qualified for the NHL playoffs for the first time since 2002 and are seeing a late-season boost in attendance.

The Coyotes moved to Phoenix in 1996 from Winnipeg, where they played as the Winnipeg Jets. The franchise has lost more than $300 million since moving to the Valley and were put into Chapter 11 bankruptcy by former owner Jerry Moyes last year.

Check out more here: http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2010/03/29/daily2.html

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Things to Consider With Three Weeks to Go.

Posted on March 19, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

ST. PAUL, Minn. — While the general managers and the league’s other tall foreheads try to come to terms with illegal checks to the head (sorry, boys, but the rulebook is full of rules that would get headshots out of the game), the rest of the NHL is just playing hockey.

So with about three weeks to play before the Stanley Cup playoffs are upon us, let’s take a look at the league from a Winnipeg perspective:

1) Although he says he has not completely made up his mind, it appears that after 18 seasons, former Winnipeg Jets captain Keith Tkachuk is nearing the end of his brilliant career.

Saying his future in St. Louis is now, Tkachuk wouldn’t admit whether or not he was retiring at the end of the season, but he did say, “I often think about this being the end.” No doubt, the Hall of Fame awaits.

2) Remember when the San Jose Sharks had a very comfortable 12-point lead in the Pacific Division? Well, not anymore. That’s because the Phoenix Coyotes have won seven straight and have moved to within three points (at the beginning of the weekend) of the heavily favored and quite talented division leaders.

The 44-22-5 Coyotes have all but assured themselves of a spot in the post-season for the first time since 2002. Now, however, they are closing in on home ice advantage in the West. This should be a great finish.

3) By now, it has to be official. There is no better coach in the NHL than Dauphin’s Barry Trotz (OK, maybe Dave Tippett in Phoenix, but nobody else). Trotz, the only coach the Nashville Predators have ever had, has the no-name, star-less Predators in seventh place five points ahead up on eight-place Detroit (at the start of the weekend).

That shouldn’t happen. The Preds just don’t have the personnel. But Trotz has made them a playoff contender – they beat L.A. on the road this week and have won four straight — and that says more about his brilliance than anything else.

4) Calling it “a retaliatory hit to the head,” the National Hockey League suspended Anaheim Ducks defenseman James Wisniewski for eight games without pay for that terrible hit to the face and head of Brent Seabrook on Wednesday night.

Wisniewski definitely gave Seabrook a cheap shot, but an eight-game suspension after giving Alexander Ovechkin only two? The NHL justice department is completely nonsensical.

5) The Montreal Canadiens have looked very good at times this season. They’ve had two four-game winning streaks. But not until the Olympic break, have the Habs put together so many outstanding games in succession. In fact, with six straight wins heading into the weekend, Montreal has moved into the playoff driver’s seat in the East.

After Tuesday night’s game, a 3-1 win over the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, the Habs moved past Philly and into sixth place in the Eastern Conference (later in the week they fell back into seventh). The Bruins are eighth with 74 points, four points back, while ninth-place Atlanta and the Rangers are seven points back. With only 12 to play, the red-hot Habs are in control of their own playoff destiny.

6) Perhaps no one has noticed, but Winnipeg’s Travis Zajac is having a season to remember. Zajac, the 24-year-old rightwinger out of the University of North Dakota has moved into the Top 35 in NHL scoring with 21 goals and 38 assists.

Perhaps more importantly, the 6-foot-3, 200-pounder, is a terrific plus-14. By the time the next Olympics roll around, he’ll be one of the best players in the game, if he isn’t already.

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Another Made Up Mainstream Media Rumour Forces Everyone into Denial.

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Saturday night on Hockey Night in Canada, Al Strachan was at it again. Strachan told a breathless audience that “two Toronto businessmen are close to purchasing the Atlanta Thrashers so they can move them to Winnipeg.”

How many different ways can you say, “crock of crap?”

Strachan was once a big-time hockey writer with Sun Media. He had an inside line to agent Don Meehan and in order to keep that line free, he publicly promoted the demands of the NHL Players (read: Agents) Association. Far too much of Strachan’s scribbling wasn’t based in reality so it was not surprising when he cooked up this rumour.

Now to be fair, the sale of the Thrashers is not particularly far-fetched. The team is a complete disaster in Atlanta so why not sell it to somebody who can make the thing work. Canada is obviously the only place where big-time hockey can work and even though Canadian teams playing in the United States seem to be the scourge of American hockey marketers, it’s already been proven that six Canadian teams generate about 33 per cent of the NHL’s total revenue.  The NHL needs more Canadian-based teams, not fewer.

So, naturally, the Thrashers denied that the team was for sale and got rather testy when www.rivercitysportsblog.com asked if the team was being sold to “a couple of guys from Toronto,” who had plans to move it to Winnipeg.

“Completely false,” said Thrashers GM Don Waddell.

While it IS likely the Thrashers are for sale and eventually will be sold to new owners, who may or may not ask to re-locate the team, Atlanta is not the launching pad that will generate Winnipeg’s next NHL franchise.

The launching pad is still Phoenix. The Coyotes will probably lose upwards of $100 million this season. The Coyotes don’t play at home until Saturday night and et they’ve already started reducing ticket prices to $25 in the lower bowl. The NHL will soon take over ownership of this mess in the desert and you can bet they won’t be flushing money down that giant toilet for more than one year.

To their credit, the Thompson family from Osmington Inc. and Thompson Reuters, the people who own the majority of shares in True North Sports and Entertainment, have been working quietly and professionally to bring the NHL to Winnipeg. They will succeed.

But when you start believing the gibberish that is generated at Hockey Night in Canada, you will be stuck believing things that simply aren’t going to happen.

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Congratulations to Gary Bettman. The First Step Toward Stopping Idiotic Behaviour is to Admit You’re an Idiot.

Posted on September 6, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and his board of governors have now publicly admitted that keeping a hockey franchise in Phoenix, Ariz., is about as stupid a business decision as anyone could possibly make.

And, to add to the NHL’s stupidity, they have made this admission not to come clean, as such, but to try and stick it to Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie. Talk about all the wrong reasons…

We know this because the Toronto Star (not that we necessarily believe the Toronto Star) has apparently uncovered a report that suggests the NHL will set a relocation fee on the Coyotes franchise from between $101 million and $195 million. Balsillie’s PSE Sports and Entertainment Co., filed a court document written by world renowned sports business analyst, Dr. Andrew Zimbalist, suggesting the fee should be somewhere between $11.2 million and $12.9 million.

Oh, oh. That’s when the NHL got all stupid.

The NHL’s documents allegedly state: “The methodology used by PSE’s expert, Dr. Andrew Zimbalist, in calculating a relocation fee range of $11.2 million and $12.9 million does not pass muster. the notion that a team in Hamilton would be worth only $11.2 million to $12.9 million more than a team in Phoenix is patently absurd.”

Dum, da dum, dum… D-U-M-M-M-M-M-M-M.

The National Hockey League just set itself up for the following criticism:

1) The NHL now admits that a franchise in Phoenix is worth an amazing $175 million MORE in Hamilton than in Phoenix and it’s trying desperately to keep a team in Phoenix. Speaking of patently absurd.

2) Sounds like the NHL is preparing to have Jim Balsillie’s bid to buy the Coyotes accepted by the bankruptcy judge.

3) If a team is worth an absurd amount more in Hamilton (your words, NHL), and since you have a potential owner, why not sell that potential owner a Hamilton expansion franchise for $200 million and make the money yourself? It’s not like the potential owner needs to buy a shitty franchise like Phoenix and move it. Let him start from scratch and you pocket the dough.

4) If a team is worth at least $175 million more in Hamilton than Phoenix and you don’t want the team in Hamilton, but you do want it in Phoenix, are you not negligent in your fiduciary duties to the other league owners and your partners, the players? Or are they just as stupid as you?

5) Is the NHL now publicly admitting that anyone who would own a team in Phoenix is a “patently absurd” human being? There is, no doubt, a sucker born every minute, but when you admit that your Phoenix franchise, the one you want to buy for $140 million and then sell to a third party, is worth $175 million less than a team in Hamilton, Ont., what sane business person — even an in-bred, silver-spooned, bratty heir with shit for brains –  would bite on that deal? It’s like Bettman is purposely trying to kill his own business.

With this alleged court statement, Gary Bettman and the NHL have clearly admitted they are idiots. But, hey, that’s the first step toward fixing the problem.

Wonder if Bettman ever stops to think that he would have been better off leaving the Jets in Winnipeg?

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In Phoenix, the Only Surprise is When There is Not a Surprise

Posted on August 26, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

When it comes to the National Hockey League in Phoenix, there is a surprise every day.

Which means, of course, that when it comes to the fate of the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes, nothing should surprise anyone.

Not even more examples of insanity, panic and sheer desperation.

On Tuesday, right after Jerry Reinsdorf dropped his bid to purchase the Coyotes and keep the team in the desert (because he’s a smart businessman and he never really seemed all that interested in buying them anyway), the National Hockey League its-own-self filed a bid to buy the team out of bankruptcy, obviously hoping to sell it later.

The league is very nervous. When Reinsdorf pulled the plug, it left only Ice Edge, a group that wants to play Coyotes games in places such as Halifax and Saskatoon (Do we hear Plum Coulee? How about Iqaaluit?) and Jim (RIM) Balsillie the Canadian billionaire the NHL hates s-o-o-o-o much, who wants to buy the Desert Dogs and move them to Hamilton, Ont.

In other words, Balsillie became the only legitimate choice for bankruptcy judge Redfield T. Baum when Reinsdorf pulled out and, to be quite frank, the RIM CEO is, and always has been, the only real person interested in paying an amount of money (in this case more than $212 milllion) to buy the Coyotes and pay off the creditors.

Of course, he wants to move the team to Hamilton, Ont., and the NHL sure doesn’t want that.

So the league has decided to make an offer itself, an offer to buy one of its own franchises, and then try to sell it to some unsuspecting sucker willing to piss away all is wealth on a bad franchise in a lousy hockey market.

That takes nerve, you know.

The judge might just want to sell it back to the NHL if only to see if those grifters can find another wealthy person stupid enough to own a hockey team in a desert. Hey, they already found Richard Burke, Steven Gluckstern, Steve Ellman and Jerry Moyes.

There must be more crazy rich people out there?

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